Growth and basic biochemical composition of Mytilus galloprovincialis feeding phytoplanktonic monospecific diets.

Phytoplankton, with its variety of species in terms of dimension, structure and biochemistry, is an important component of the diet of bivalves. Administration of monospecific diets might represent an useful tool to establish the effects of single phytoplanktonic species on growth and metabolism of such molluscs. Therefore, with the aim to improve Mytilus galloprovincialis growth by specifically controlling and modulating its dietary supplementation, we evaluated growth rate and basic biochemical composition of M. galloprovincialis specimen feeding monospecific diets of Isochrysis galbana or Tetraselmis suecica. Our results indicate that administration of monospecific doses of T. suecica or I. galbana is sufficient to induce an increase, although limited, of the growth in M. galloprovincialis. Furthermore, feeding different monospecific diets results in qualitatively different effects on the biochemical composition of the mussels.